i don't think lance armstrong really knows who lance armstrong is. >> dr. jeff gardere, thank you for joining us on the ed show. appreciate it so much. that is the ed show. i'm ed schultz. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, ed. i'll see you in d.c. >> i might jump out of the booth and join the parade. >> i'll see you there. >> you bet. >> thanks for joining us tonight. have you ever heard of the vix? it's spelled v-i-x for volatility index. it's sometimes called the fear index. vix is a numerical index of volatility and fear in the stock market. it tells us in chart form, in numerical form how these guys are feeling, if they get spooked by their bosses, clients, horoscopes, whatever. if they start trading like crazy people for whatever reason, the vix goes up. it registers fear. what causes the vix to spike typically is news about the economy. actual real-world events. this, for example, is what happened to the vix on october 24th, 2008, that big red arrow there. that's when the stock market crashed in '08, one o